“Dangerous manmade global warming” has become the most systematic, massive, costly fraud ever perpetrated. This is a harsh judgment, but the mounting evidence is undeniable.

As climate analyst Anthony Watts points out, after a very modest rise over 20 years, Earth’s average temperature hasn’t increased in 17 years, even as plant-fertilizing carbon-dioxide levels climbed to nearly 400 parts per million, still a minuscule 0.04 percent of the atmosphere.

The eight years since a Category 3 hurricane hit the United States marks the longest such period since 1900, he notes. Tornado frequency is the lowest on record. Droughts are shorter and less extreme than during the Dust Bowl and 1950s.

Arctic sea ice is back to normal, following the coldest summer in decades. Antarctic ice is at a record high. Sea levels continue to rise at a meager rate of 4 to 8 inches per century. Four of the five snowiest Northern Hemisphere winters in the last half-century have occurred since 2008. This year has brought the fewest U.S. forest fires in a decade and ranks second-lowest in acres burned.